The world is your dancefloor with Beat Reality

Today is a great day for me because finally there is a second app of mine on Viveport. It is called Beat Reality and it is a super innovative musical mixed reality experience for the Vive Focus.

The root of all this is still the #30DaysInVR initiative by Enea Le Fons. After that event, Enea and I from time to time chat about VR and collaborate on little things. One day, during a call, he said that in his opinion it would have been cool if he could be able to see the world around him as if it was made only with edges and that these edges could be reactive to music. If you don’t know Enea, he’s a crazy creative person and he’s into various music communities and also loves to take part in DJ sets and jam sessions. During his 30 days in VR, he made various experiments with music and XR and also shot some photos while DJing with a Vive Focus on. So he loves VR and loves music and loves also to mix the two.

Maybe he didn’t think about possible consequences of that talk since he has always an insane amount of ideas that get lost because of lack of time, means and whatever else. Instead, feeling the passion in his voice while talking about this idea, I actually decided to make a crappy prototype of it. So, I took my Focus, my dev skills and coded this little sample, that I also showcased on my social media some weeks ago.

This is me walking in my office with my Vive Focus On: it is a live footage from the headset, it is not a post-processing effect on the video. In a later version, I also made the edges react with sound, becoming smaller and bigger depending on the volume input of the microphone and I sent the APK to him.

The funny thing is that he didn’t notice that message of mine, so he didn’t even realize that his idea was becoming true. It has been only some weeks later, when I asked him if he liked the sound reactive prototype I sent him, that he installed the APK and got super excited. I rarely saw him so much excited about something. From that moment on, Enea has become a volcano of ideas and the collaboration between us has let this little prototype evolve so that to become a cool music experience for the Vive Focus. We named it Beat Reality because it makes you see the reality following the Beats of the music.

But what is Beat Reality? Well, Beat Reality is a discotheque in your home; it is a new way to see reality; it is a synesthetic experience; it is a kinesthetic experience. Basically, you see the reality around you, but in the form of colored edges and these edges pulse so that to follow the music. The more the music is high in volume, the more the edges are thick and opaque; the more the music is low, the more the edges become invisible. You soon start seeing your reality beating at the rhythm of your music. There are various visualization modes to try and this makes the app even cooler.

Enea had this great idea to let the user record photos and videos inside the app: so inside Beat Reality, you can take photos and little GIFs of the reality beating around you. He has opened a Giphy channel with lots of GIFs that he has recorded himself and there you can see how the resulting videos are pretty cool. See this one recorded inside a car for instance:

https://gph.is/2xac60d

Or this one with my logo pulsating following the rhythm of music:

https://gph.is/2PzsIWM

Also the screenshots may be nice to see

The possibility are endless: while developing it, sometimes I had fun inside the office by putting some 90s dance music at a high volume and start dancing with my Focus on as if I were in a discotheque. Actually, it would be great also for direct use inside clubs. DJs will love it and also artists may get crazy because of it. Enea wants to experiment even in this sense. And he also thinks that the app may be used even to relax, meditate or stimulate the neural system.

So, how does it work? It is very simple: start some cool music in your room, then put the Focus on and launch the app. You will immediately see the world around you flashing following the sound. Enjoy this moment as you wish: you can dance, you can relax, you can take photos and then share them on the social media.

You can control the experience via the controller that is showcased with a very cool underline style, that is coherent with the rest of the app.

You can use the touchpad to change the graphic of the experience:

• With the top/down buttons, you can enable/disable the ability to see your surroundings. If it is disabled, you see that all non-edge areas are black, while if it is enabled, you see the passthrough of the Focus augmented with the pulsing edges;
• With the left/right buttons, you can switch the pulsating modes:
  • Color continuously changing with time;
  • Color going from green to red following the volume;
  • Color aqua;
  • Color green;
  • Color purple

On the touchpad, you can also see how much time you have spent inside this musical reality.

Regarding the other buttons:

• With the button below the touchpad, you take a “snap” (that is, a photo);
• With the trigger button, you save a “memory” (that is, you save a 7 seconds GIF).

All the multimedia saved by this application are saved inside the BeatReality folder of your Focus. So, to access them, you just plug your Focus into your PC via USB, authorize transfer file mode inside the headset and then access that folder from your PC. If you can’t see them, try disconnecting and then connecting the device again, sometimes there is a little problem of refresh. You can take these elements and then upload them to your favorite social media and share these innovative memories with all your friends.

https://gph.is/2NEWjR8

Since Enea and I wanted to make the most people possible be able to enjoy this kinesthetic reality, we put this version of the app for free on Viveport. So, if you have a Vive Focus, go to Viveport and look for Beat Reality (today it is even in homepage!) and then share with all your friends the GIFs that you will create with this cool creative tool!

We have also some plans for future features to implement (in a free or paid way), and are also open to listening to all your suggestions. People that have tried the app have all reported enthusiastic feedback and Mister President of HTC Vive China is himself very excited because of this application, so it is automatically cool 🙂 What are you waiting for? Get a Focus and try it!

Enjoy your life in a new way… the world is your dancefloor!